Barbara Lee's 9/14/01 Speech

Prescient speech from 2001 : Barbara Lee explains her rationale for voting against the Authorization to Use Military Force in Afghanistan, citing the overly broad nature of the bill.

In an op-ed she published in the San Francisco Chronicle nine days later, she explained her vote by pointing out that the resolution “was a blank check to the president to attack anyone involved in the Sept. 11 events — anywhere, in any country, without regard to our nation’s long-term foreign policy, economic and national security interests, and without time limit.” She added: “A rush to launch precipitous military counterattacks runs too great a risk that more innocent men, women, children will be killed.”

For her lone opposition to the power grab by Bush-Cheney, and her principled defense of the U.S. constitution's separation of powers, Lee was deluged with rancid insults and death threats to the point where she needed around-the-clock bodyguards.

TPF reminds you that only Congress has the power to declare war. The president is the lackey of Congress, no more.

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People to come together to solve shared challenges at the grassroots level. This discussion forum is for events, plans, strategies and tactics to support sustainability and justice, including mutual aid and self-bootstrapping. Put your reviews of peace-promoting games and nonviolent disobedience training here as well.

Taxpayers can take stock of how the federal government spent their 2007 income tax dollars: over 42 percent went towards military spending, while education received just over 4 percent. The National Priorities Project shows how the average Tulsan family is diverting $360 of their 2007 income tax dollars to buy military hardware, military services, military advertising, military recruiters, and to pay down war debt accumulated by the military during past wars. The campaign for a Peace Tax in lieu of War Taxes is a nationwide campaign.